The Girl Scouts of Penn's Woods have come up with a unique spin on a project to save Pennsylvania's hemlock trees (Tsuga canadensis), according to this article from NEPA Today. Send them $3 and you can adopt a ladybird beetle (Pseudoscymnus tsugae), the only natural predator of the hemlock woolly adelgid (Adelges tsugae). The Adopt-A-Beetle program will send you an adoption card and a picture of a ladybird beetle that can be decorated, then sent back to be posted on the "wall of beetle heroes." You can purchase the kits at the address given in the article, or by calling 1 (800) 432-4672. The troop is hoping to raise enough money to purchase and release 5000 beetles. Without predators, the spread of the woolly adelgid will comtinue unchecked, and it only takes seven years for them to kill an adult hemlock tree.
